so what's this?
VVVVVV (pronounce it however you will) is the latest thing from the guy who is named Terry Cavanagh, known previously for titles like Don't Look Back and Pathways over on Kongregate. Unless I'm missing something, this is his first commercial game; his other stuff has been strictly freeware. And it just came out two days ago, on the 10th! It's $15 USD, though, which is fairly steep. Whether or not there's enough content to justify that price (for comparison, indie games on Steam rarely pass ten bucks) is sort of up in the air, but it's a fun little game nonetheless.
Oh, noooo!
huh. what's it about?
You are Captain Viridian, ace space guy. You and your similarly adorable technicolor crew are cruising through space, minding your own respective businesses, when suddenly something goes terribly wrong! You are forced to evacuate, but the ship's teleporter goes haywire, tossing you and your crew to random spots around a mysterious new area. As the leader of your crew, it falls to you to explore this new world and rescue your crewmates!
Even space explorers can't get away from the everyday grind.
cool beans. what's it play like?
I'm glad you asked! VVVVVV is, at its core, quite simple. You can move left and right at your leisure using the directional keys, and reverse gravity with any number of other buttons. You can move freely in midair, but cannot reverse gravity unless your feet are touching a platform. It's a deceptively simple gimmick, but the level design is outstanding in how it puts it to use. The world itself is quite large, with a layout and a degree of freedom remniscient of the Metroidvania genre. The challenges themselves vary in difficulty, but VVVVVV is, on the whole, quite forgiving. Checkpoints are placed quite fairly, generally before and after the really tough bits, so you're not gonna wind up breaking something out of rage most of the time. You are going to come to hate one room in particular, but it's purely for an optional bonus -- a "trinket," of which there are twenty. They unlock things. They're cool.
Hey, the maps remind me of Metroidvanias, too.
what do you like most about it?
Oh man, the music. VVVVVV has an amazing chiptune soundtrack to it. I'm currently dealing with the toughest room in the game, contributing to maybe a hundred and fifty deaths so far, and I have not yet gotten tired of the music that plays there. That should say something.
This isn't it by far, but it should give you an idea of what kind of skills you're going to have to develop.
heh heh. verdict?
Get it, I guess. Don't pirate it, because that's a dick move and seriously it just came out this week why you gotta be like that. The gameplay is simple, fun, and new, the physics are tight, the music is bamf, and the graphics are simple and cute. Sort of reminds me of a less neurotic Jet Set Willy with a fun new mechanic.
Must be the room captions. I will be honest with you; I do not know what half of them even mean.
In case you missed my subtle ~*~computer magic~*~ in putting the site link in the banner, you can find the game at http://www.thelettervsixtim.es. There's also a demo there, containing the first level and one from later on, in case you want to get a feel for the game before you shell out Much Dollar Bills.
Basically? It's fun. Discuss.
